St. Landry democrat., 1887-05-07

hold you; you can't get any other Place"
o, what a contrast we see between such
men and those Christian merchants OF
Brooklyn and New York who to-day are
sympathetic with their c!erks-When they
pay the salary, acting in this way:
This salary that | give you is not all
my interest in you. You are an immortal
man; you are an immortal woman; l am
interested in your present and your ever
! lasting welfare; want YOU to unders tand
that if l am q little higher up in this
store, / am beside you in Christian sym
pathy"
Go back forty years to Arthur Happens
store in New Y ork-a man whose worst
enemies never questioned his honesty.
Every morning, he brought all the
clerks, and the accountants, and the
| WegherS into a room for devOtlOns.
They sang. They prayed They
exhorted. On Monday morning the clerks
were asked where they had attended
church on the previous day, and what the
sermons were about 1t must have
sounded strangely, that voice of praise
along the streets where the devotees of
mammon were counting their golden
| beads. You say Arthur Happen failed.
Yes, he was unfortunate, like a great
| many good men; but understand he met
all his obligations before he left this
| world, and | know that he died in the
peace Of the gospel, and that he is before
the throne of God to-day-forever blessed.
If that be failing, l wish that you may all
| fail. There are a great many young men
| in this city-yea, in this housewife want
| a word of encouragement, Christian en-.
| enlargement. One smile of good cheer
| would be worth more to them tomorrow
morning in their places of business than
| present of s., 900 ten years hence.
o, l remember the apprehension and
| the tremOr of entering profession. | re-
| member very well the man who greeted
me in the ecclesiastical court with the tip
ends of the long fingers Of the left hand;
| and remember the other man who took
my hand in both of his ana said:
| ''God bless you, my brother; you have
entered glorious profession; be faithful
to God and he will see you through
Why, l feel this minute the thrill of that
| handshaking, though the man who gave
me the Christian grip has been in Heaven
| twenty-five years. There are old men TO-
day who can look back to forty years ago,
| when some one said a kind word to them.
Now, old men, pay back what you
| got then. 1t is great art for old
men to be able to encourage the
V
our cities who have come from inland
counties of our own State, from the gran
tie hills of the North from the savannahs
| of the South, from the prairies of the
| West. They are here to get their fort
| une. They are IN boarding houses where
| every body seems to be thinking of him.
| self. They want companionship, and they
| want Christian encourag ement. Give it
to them.
| My word is to all clerks in this house.
| Be mighter than your temptations. A
| Sandwich Islander used to think when he
slew an enemy all the strength of that
enemy came into his own right arm. And
| have to tell you that every misfortune
| you conquer is so much a lded to your
| moral power With omnipotence for a
| lever and the throne of God for a
| fulcrum, you can move earth and
Heaven. While there are other young
men putting the cup of sin to their lips,
stoop down and drink out of the fountains
of God, and you will rise up strong to
thresh the mountains The ancients used
| to think that pearls were fallen raindrops
which, touching the surface of the sea,
! hardened into gems, then dropped to the
bottom. have to tell you to-day that
storms of trial have showered impersh-
able pearls into many young mans lap.
| o, young mani while you have goods to
sell, remember you have soul to save.
| In hos pital Christian captain, wound
| ed few days before, got deltriOus, and in
| the midnight hour he sprang out on the
| floor of the hospital, thinking he was in
the battle, crying:
Come on, boys! Forward! Charger
| All! he was only battling the specters
| of his own brain But it is no imagi nary
conflict into which l call you, young man,
| to-day. There are ten thousand spiritual
| foes that would capture you. In the name
| of God up and at them. After the last
| store has been closed, after the last bank
| has gone down, after the shuttle Of the
| quick feet on the custom-house steps has
| stopped, after the long line of merchant
| men on the sea have taken sail or fame,
| after Brooklyn and New York and London
| and Vienna have gone down into the grave
where Thebes and Babylon and Tyre lay
buried, after the great fire bells of the
Judgment Day have tolled at the burning
of world on that day, all the affairs Of
| the banking-houses and stores wiz come
| up for inspection.
| O, what an opening of account books!
| Side by side, the clerks and the men who
employed them-the people who owned
| INTERCHANGEABLE stores on the same
| footing with the Stewards, and the Della
| nos, and the Abbotts, and the Earrings.
| Every invoice made out-all the labels of
| goods, all certificates of stock, all lists Of
prices, all private marks of the firm, now
explained so every body can understand
them. All the maps of cities that were
never built, but in which lots were sol
| All bargains. All gougings. All snap
| judgments. All false entries. All adulter-
alton OF liquors with copperas and strych-
nine. All mixing CT teas, and sugars, and
coffees, and sirups, with cheaper material.
| All embellishments of trust funds. All
swindles in coal, and iron, and oil, and sill
yer, and stocks. On that day, when the
cities of this world are smoking in the
| last conflagration, the trial will go on;